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Homeless Veterans

VA Is Working to End Homelessness Among Veterans

In late 2009, VA announced an ambitious goal to end Veteran homelessness. The plan to address this urgent national priority was outlined in 2010’s Opening Doors, the first-ever federal strategic plan to end Veteran homelessness. These moves galvanized federal, state and local actions to prevent Veterans from becoming homeless and help those who are homeless become stably housed as quickly as possible.

Since then, as a result of VA’s close collaboration with local and national stakeholder organizations, success in ending homelessness among Veterans is happening community by community. State and local governments across the nation—Virginia, Houston, New Orleans and many others—have recently announced that they have ended Veteran homelessness. Many more communities are poised make similar announcements in the near future.

The national picture is also improving. The 2016 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count—a “snapshot” of homelessness on a given night in America—shows that homelessness among Veterans is down by nearly 50 percent since 2010 (learn more about the PIT Count here). The data also revealed a 17 percent decrease in Veteran homelessness since 2015—quadruple the previous year’s rate of decline.

These gains aside, there is more work to do to address the many causes of homelessness among Veterans. These include poverty, lack of access to reasonably priced housing, isolation from family or friends and substance use or mental health challenges that may develop or worsen as a result of service-related trauma or housing instability.

Both independently and in tandem with other federal agencies, VA strives to meet the needs of Veterans by providing various services that help Veterans secure permanent housing and achieve their full potential. These include:

VA also partners with many other public and private entities to expand access to meaningful employment, affordable housing and move-in essentials. Our work is guided by the Housing First approach, which is based on the premise that when Veterans have a place to call home, they’re best able to benefit from the supportive services they need.

Communities nearing an end to Veteran homelessness are using new tools to collect local and state data. The information is compared to the criteria that United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, HUD and VA agree lead to an end to Veteran homelessness.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe announced on Veterans Day 2015 that Virginia had ended Veteran homelessness. (Virginia Department of Veterans Services)

The resulting information paints a unique, locally based picture of progress made in housing Veterans. The data illuminates accomplishments and pinpoints areas where communities must do more to end homelessness among Veterans.

The growing list of localities that have ended Veteran homelessness are proof that, community by community, it’s possible to ensure every Veteran has a place to call home.

Despite these developments, VA remains committed to ending homelessness among Veterans in every community. That means continuing to invest in effective interventions to prevent homelessness among Veterans and rapidly re-house those who become homeless. It means keeping up our relentless outreach to Veterans in need. And it means enlisting collaborators among government, employers and community-based entities to make sure every Veteran has a place to call home.